Hollywood looking to books for inspiration is not a “novel” idea. (Ahem.) Certainly the upcoming slate of 2014 theatrical releases is no different. After the runaway success of the Hunger Games and Twilight sagas, teen fiction will continue to provide fodder for the multiplex with adaptations of Vampire Academy, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, even Lois Lowry’s two decade old tale of dystopia, The Giver (starring Meryl Streep no less) coming down the pipeline over the next eleven months. Of course, we’ll also be seeing big releases of some of the most popular adult novels of the last several years, including Fifty Shades of Grey, and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, the latter being filmed by Zodiac and The Social Network director David Fincher. I thought it might be prudent to mention some slightly lesser-read works so you can place that hold right now, before the rest of the city is on to you.
George Clooney’s imminent The Monuments Men is based on a non-fiction book by Robert M. Edsel about a ragtag group of art aficionados working with the Allied forces and tasked with tracking down and preserving European artifacts from the Nazis. The trailer makes the story look like a rousing adventure. Feel free to picture the film’s stellar supporting cast (including Bill Murray, John Goodman and Cate Blanchett) whilst reading the book. I won’t tell.
Ron Rash’s novel Serena made many a top ten list back in 2008 and the film adaptation has been kicking around ever since. At one point Angelina Jolie was slated for the role of the larger-than-life, tough-as-nails title character, a woman in North Carolina timber country in 1929. Now it’s Jennifer Lawrence, who will be reuniting once again with her Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle co-star Bradley Cooper.
Lastly, two titans of their respective mediums will be delivering what will certainly be one of the most original films of 2014. Thomas Pynchon’s books have never been the most adaptable but if any contemporary director could take on such a monumental task and pull it off, my money would be on Paul Thomas Anderson, director of There Will Be Blood and The Master. Anderson’s source material is Pynchon’s 2009 novel Inherent Vice, a shambling mystery starring a stoner sleuth named Doc Sportello (to be played by the great Joaquin Phoenix). The films I thought of while reading the book were Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye (itself a loose adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel) and The Big Lebowski from the Brothers Coen. If Inherent Vice is even half as good as those films, I will be quite satisfied.
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